From: Doruska, Sara J [Sara.Doruska@med.va.gov]
Sent: Monday, June 23, 2003 1:23 PM
To: 'fdadockets@oc.fda.gov'
Subject: RE: June 26 Meeting Addressing Screening for Drug Names

I am a pharmacist and am writing in support of efforts to evaluate trade
names for drug products prior to original FDA approval of the product.  I
believe that such an evaluation performed prior to product marketing may be
able to identify some of the potential problems with look-alike or
sound-alike drug names and prevent medication errors.  Catastrophic
medication errors can occur if the pharmacist's ability to identify the
correct product is impaired in any way.  While there are numerous ways to
avoid medication errors, one important mechanism is to evaluate potential
pitfalls of drug nomenclature in a prospective manner.

I would also like to speak specifically to naming of non-prescription drug
products.  There are many cases where products containing dissimilar
ingredients are allowed to share trade names, for example "Anacin" which
contains aspirin 400mg and caffeine 32mg as compared to "Aspirin Free
Anacin" which contains acetaminophen 500mg.  There are many other examples,
such as the PediaCare products and Tylenol products.  Pharmacists are often
called on the telephone to provide advice related to use of these products
but often the patient does not know which of these products they have.
Without knowing this information, it is extremely difficult to provide
appropriate advice to the consumer.

Thank you for your attention.

Sara J. Doruska, Pharm.D.
Clinical Pharmacist
Ankeny, Iowa
s.doruska@att.net